Lutz looks back at Futaba/OS Nitro Challenge

0 Aug. 5, 2015, 12:46 a.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from Ryan Lutz:
www.lutzinator.com

OS/Futaba Nitro Challenge – Kirkwood, MO

This past weekend I took my 3rd red eye flight in as many weeks to attend the OS/Futaba Nitro Challenge. Once again held at the St. Louis Dirtburners track which is always a good time. I love the atmosphere here with the big trees and the river, along with the laid back persona of most. Everyone just having a good time, many camping out and making good family time of the weekend. I took my customary 3 vehicles to this one and with a turnout over 200 entries it made it just right, but super busy with the double mains on Sunday.

There was was practice on Thursday afternoon and the Levi Jackson built track was a lot of fun. The track was being watered and the grip level was pretty decent. As the sun got strong though the track began to dry quicker and we made a decision to let it groove early in hopes it would groove and hold together very well. By the end of practice on Friday we became aware that this wasn’t going as planned. The track got super dry and while there was a nice groove it had little holes in that groove that continually grew and spit out sand, dirt, and rocks. By the end of the weekend the track was a complete challenge as finding a setup to traverse the conditions was tricky. Everyone bemoaned about finding consistency and we found ourselves using Medium hardness tires, even though the conditions were loose.

Conditions example

Friday night though was where the competition began with the first round of qualifiers getting underway, mostly under the lights. Out of the gate in Q1 I got off to a great start with a TQ in all 3 classes. My truggy once again on the same setup was dialed at yet another track. I don’t actually think I’ve even rebuilt my shocks or diffs for the past 3 events. In Ebuggy I was told of a completely different setup that Billy Fisher had just sent in and so I decided to give that a try. It was super stiff on the suspension and used springs I’d never used before. At this point the track still wasn’t to blown out and it felt pretty good. It drove from the front with the rear tagging along for the ride faithfully following right behind. For sure a setup I look to try on more tracks.

Some Night time racing!

Q2 started on Saturday morning and truggy was dialed again. No new news there. Ebuggy though I made some mistakes and Joe eeked out the TQ by .3 tenths. Nitro buggy I switched to that Fisher setup and was able to TQ the round for the overall. So going into round 3 I just needed to TQ Ebuggy to TQ all 3 classes. It was between Joe and myself and he made some mistakes early and I was able to seal the deal and take the Hat Trick of TQ’s.

Sunday brought the hottest day of the weekend and double mains were on tap for all classes I was running. It was a scramble to try to find some Medium tires for use as I had only brought soft and SS. I ended up getting a used set of medium ibeams and some medium impacts. This basically got me by for the mains. Could have used one more set but they were hard to come by. All the mains were also in a race marshal race marshal format. So I have to give huge kudos to Eric Fletcher and all those who helped me with marshaling in that heat. I can’t thank you enough.

A1 Truggy was first and it was a dialed race for me. I was able to get out and pull away to a lap and a half victory after the 20min race. Truck was dialed as always.

A1 Nitro Buggy was next and the first 7 minutes or so was a 5 way battle. I found myself in all those positions throughout that time as everyone was struggling with the surface. I did get out front though and was able to run a clean finish to take a 20 second victory or so as most others had flameouts in the pits.

Matt-Dub with the Chassis Swap

A1 Ebuggy was the final set of A1s. I held off Joe for a couple laps at the start but that setup I had on with the conditions made it so very hard to drive. I did what I could to hold on but Joe got by and put in a good run. I finished 2.5 seconds back in second.

A2 Truggy was next and it was a rinse and repeat of A1. What more can I say about the Tekno truggy. Simply amazing. With the win I would take the overall Victory.

Truggy TQ + Victory

A2 Ebuggy was next and I needed to beat Joe by 2.5 laps. Well I put myself in a hole on the first lap straddling the pipe and flipping over and falling back to 5th. I would crash again the next lap and soon found myself over half a lap down and out of contention even though my buggy felt better than in A1 due to softening the shocks a bit, but I just made to many mistakes. My battle now became to preserve 2nd overall so I fought back the whole race. On the last lap I had moved to 3rd and had 2nd in my sights. I reeled him in and I thought we beat the loop but it caught us and I finished just tenths behind in 3rd, but overall I would take 2nd and it was a Tekno podium sweep.

Ebuggy TQ + 2nd / Tekno Sweep

A2 Nitro Buggy was last and my primary goal needed to be to finish top 3 and be within one position and 20’seconds of Joe. At the start I held the lead for a few minutes. Wheeler though was on a mission and he got by when I made a mistake. I would follow him the remainder of the race and take a solid 2nd. Overall though I would take the victory with the first and the second. Joe would also take 2nd for a Tekno 1-2.

Nitro Buggy TQ + Win

Overall I had a great time at this event. A huge shoutout to the Fletcher’s for their amazing hospitality this weekend. Thanks to Ramos for bringing his Tekno tent so we looked awesome. Thank you to all those who volunteered marshal for me when needed and also those who traded me some Medium tires for main day.

Making our presence seen!

I look forward to this race again next year and hope the weather can be as good as this year. I’m sure the track will be watered more frequently as I think we learned a lot about the dirt!

Next up is a drive to So Cal in a couple weeks for some testing and a JBRL event at Chula Vista.

Joe and I take 1 & 2 in each class!